The Franco-Prussian War was brought about by rising tensions between France and Prussia in the 1860s. France, under Emperor Napoleon III, was determined to check the growth of Prussian power and avenge what it saw as a series of diplomatic humiliations. Prussia, under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, believed that a Prussian-led war of the German states against France would be a decisive act leading to creation of a unified German empire. The conflict began on July 19, 1870, when France declared war. The French army proved woefully unprepared and suffered ...

The Franco-Prussian War was brought about by rising tensions between France and Prussia in the 1860s. France, under Emperor Napoleon III, was determined to check the growth of Prussian power and avenge what it saw as a series of diplomatic humiliations. Prussia, under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, believed that a Prussian-led war of the German states against France would be a decisive act leading to creation of a unified German empire. The conflict began on July 19, 1870, when France declared war. The French army proved woefully unprepared and suffered ...

The Franco-Prussian War was brought about by rising tensions between France and Prussia in the 1860s. France, under Emperor Napoleon III, was determined to check the growth of Prussian power and avenge what it saw as a series of diplomatic humiliations. Prussia, under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, believed that a Prussian-led war of the German states against France would be a decisive act leading to creation of a unified German empire. The conflict began on July 19, 1870, when France declared war. The French army proved woefully unprepared and suffered ...

The Thereza Christina Maria collection is composed of 21,742 photos assembled by Emperor Pedro II (1825-91) throughout his life and donated by him to the National Library of Brazil. The collection covers a wide variety of subjects. It documents the achievements of Brazil and Brazilians in the 19th century and also includes many photographs of Europe, Africa, and North America. The neoclassical residence of the Barão de Mauá stands at the beginning of Rio Branco Avenue in Petrópolis. Irineu Evangelista de Souza, the Barão de Mauá (1813-89), purchased it ...

The Thereza Christina Maria collection is composed of 21,742 photos assembled by Emperor Pedro II (1825-91) throughout his life and donated by him to the National Library of Brazil. The collection covers a wide variety of subjects. It documents the achievements of Brazil and Brazilians in the 19th century and also includes many photographs of Europe, Africa, and North America. The collection contains photographs showing the construction of the railroad in the southern state of Paraná from Paranagua to Curitiba, divided into three sections: Paranaguá-Morretes, Morretes-Roça Nova, and Roça ...

This image, showing pavilions on the grounds of Changdeokgung or Changdok palace, is one of 43 photographs of Korea taken by George Clayton Foulk between 1883 and 1886 and held at the American Geographical Society Library at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Changdeokgung was built in the 15th century as a secondary palace after the primary palace of Gyeongbokgung. Both palaces were burned down during the Japanese invasion in 1592, and Changdeokgung was the first to be rebuilt in the early 17th century (under Korean kings Sonjo and Kwanghae Kun), after ...

The Thereza Christina Maria collection is composed of 21,742 photos assembled by Emperor Pedro II (1825-91) throughout his life and donated by him to the National Library of Brazil. The collection covers a wide variety of subjects. It documents the achievements of Brazil and Brazilians in the 19th century and also includes many photographs of Europe, Africa, and North America. This field, photographed by Rafael Castro y Ordonez during the Scientific Commission of the Pacific in 1862, has at various times been known as the Field of Santana, Republic ...

The Thereza Christina Maria collection is composed of 21,742 photos assembled by Emperor Pedro II (1825-91) throughout his life and donated by him to the National Library of Brazil. The collection covers a wide variety of subjects. It documents the achievements of Brazil and Brazilians in the 19th century and also includes many photographs of Europe, Africa, and North America. This statue, erected in 1862, was the first civic monument in Rio de Janeiro. The sculpture features Emperor Pedro I on horseback. Around the base are four figures in ...

The Thereza Christina Maria collection is composed of 21,742 photos assembled by Emperor Pedro II (1825-91) throughout his life and donated by him to the National Library of Brazil. The collection covers a wide variety of subjects. It documents the achievements of Brazil and Brazilians in the 19th century and also includes many photographs of Europe, Africa, and North America. The Passeio Publico, which was built in 1779 and opened to the public in 1793, is the oldest park in Brazil and one of the oldest in the Americas ...

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944) used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire.

This photochrome from circa 1890-1900 is from the “Views of Architecture and Other Sites in Copenhagen, Denmark” section in the catalog of the Detroit Publishing Company. It shows the Eremitage Hunting Lodge in the Jaegersborg Deer Park near Klampenborg, Denmark, which was built in 1734-36 by King Christian VI for royal hunting dinners. The deer park was established in 1669 by King Frederik III as a private hunting reserve, and was opened to the public in 1756. The Detroit Photographic Company was launched as a photographic publishing firm in the ...

This photochrome print of the popular Kungsparken (King’s Park) in Malmö is part of “Landscape and Marine Views of Norway and Sweden” from the catalog of the Detroit Photographic Company. The park was designed by the Danish architect O. Høegh Hansen, and opened in 1872. Hansen’s design reflected French and Austrian influences of the 1850s and evoked both the romantic and baroque styles. Malmö is located in southern Sweden, just across Oresund Strait from Denmark. The Detroit Photographic Company was launched as a photographic publishing firm in the ...

This photochrome print of Malmo, Sweden is from the “Landscape and Marine Views of Norway” section in the catalog of the Detroit Publishing Company, which also included six views of Sweden. The 1892 edition of Baedeker’s Norway, Sweden, and Denmark: Handbook for Travellers described Malmo as a “thriving seaport, the capital of the fertile province of Skåne, with 47,500 inhabitants” and informed its readers about “the pleasant promenades of Kung Oskars Park (café, with concerts frequently).” Malmo is located on the body of water known as the Sound ...

This photochrome print of the popular Kungsparken (King’s Park) in Malmö is part of “Landscape and Marine Views of Norway and Sweden” from the catalog of the Detroit Photographic Company. The park was designed by the Danish architect O. Høegh Hansen, and opened in 1872. Hansen’s design reflected French and Austrian influences of the 1850s and evoked both the romantic and baroque styles. As described by Baedeker’s Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden and Denmark: With Excursions to Iceland and Spitzbergen (1912), at the center of the park was a ...

This photochrome print of the Kungstradgarden (King’s Garden) in Stockholm, Sweden, is part of “Landscape and Marine Views of Norway and Sweden” from the catalog of the Detroit Photographic Company. The park is located west of the national cathedral and covers more than 3.5 hectares. It originally served, in the 15th century, as the king’s kitchen garden. Later it was transformed by the French designer Jean Allard into a park intended to achieve a balance between nature and urbanization. The park was opened to the public in ...

This late-19th century photochrome print is from “Views of the Austro-Hungarian Empire” in the catalog of the Detroit Publishing Company. It depicts an elegant building on Margaret Island (Margitsziget, in Hungarian), a 2.5-kilometer long island in the Danube River in central Budapest. According to Baedeker’s Austria, Including Hungary, Transylvania, Dalmatia, and Bosnia (1900), the island was “the property of Archduke Joseph, who has converted it, at an outlay of several million florins, into a most delightful park.” Margaret Island was named for Saint Margaret (1242-70), the daughter of ...

This photochrome print of the Champs de Mars in Paris is part of “Views of Architecture, Monuments, and Other Sites in France” from the catalog of the Detroit Publishing Company (1905). The Champs de Mars stretches between the Eiffel Tower and the imposing Ecole Militaire in Paris’s Seventh Arrondissement (district). The 1900 edition of Baedeker's Paris and its Environs, with routes from London to Paris: Handbook for Travellers described the park as “a large sandy space, 1100 yds. in length and 550 yds. in breadth,” which until 1889 ...

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944) used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944) used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944) used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire.

Construction of a new railroad to the ice-free port of Murmansk lasted from 1914 to the spring of 1917, when it was connected to the capital, then called Petrograd. Among the towns in this northern area along the route was Petrozavodsk (“Peter’s factory”), founded in September 1703, just four months after Saint Petersburg. Tsar Peter I (the Great) needed an additional iron works to supply his military, and his associate Alexander Menshikov discovered an appropriate site where the Shuya River enters Lake Onega. A plaque attached to a post ...

After the end of the Caucasus War in 1864, Russia encouraged settlers to move into the coastal area along the Black Sea, which became a part of Black Sea Province. The Imperial Court also acquired land in this area, especially during the reign of Nicholas II, who created a large farm and park near the point where the Dagomys River empties into the Black Sea. The semitropical climate of this region of the western Caucasus, which includes Sochi, was home to exotic floral varieties unknown elsewhere in the Russian Empire ...

This panoramic photograph shows Lake Geneva, Switzerland, as it appeared in the early 20th century. Panoramic photographs employ a variety of techniques to create a wide angle of view. The Boston office of the Notman Photo Co. copyrighted the photograph in 1909. The Notman firm was founded by William Notman (1826-91), a Scottish-born Canadian photographer who opened a studio in Montreal in 1856. Notman eventually became the largest photographic business in North America, with, at one time or another, seven studios in Canada and 19 in the northeastern United States ...

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944) used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire.

This map was made in 1870 during a time of great change for the New York City parks. A group of corrupt politicians, known as the Tweed Ring after William “Boss” Tweed, abruptly replaced the Board of Commissioners of Central Park with a new city agency, the Department of Public Parks. The new parks commissioner, Peter B. Sweeny, then fired designer of Central Park Frederick Law Olmsted, Calvert Vaux, and Andrew Haswell Green, the park comptroller. Tweed and Sweeny, along with the other key ring members, Mayor Abraham Oakey Hall ...

This view of the 1853 monument to Saint Vladimir overlooking the Dnieper River is from Souvenir of Kiev, an early 20th-century album showing the main sites of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine and at that time one of the most important cities of the Russian Empire. Prince Vladimir Sviatoslavich (circa 956–1015), or Saint Vladimir the Great, brought Christianity to the medieval polity of Kievan Rus in 988. The monument, some 18 meters high, was designed by sculptor Vasily Demut-Malinovsky (1779–1846). The statue, which is only one quarter of ...

This view of the old city of Kiev is from Souvenir of Kiev, an early 20th-century album showing the main sites of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine and at that time one of the most important cities of the Russian Empire. Vladimir Hill, one of the oldest places in Kiev, is part of the public Saint Michael’s Park in front of Saint Michael’s Monastery, laid out after a monument to Prince Vladimir the Great was built there in 1853. The classical Saint Alexander’s Church, built in 1842 ...

This view of Askold's Grave is from Souvenir of Kiev, an early 20th-century album showing the main sites of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine and at that time one of the most important cities of the Russian Empire. Askold's Grave is a part of the park complex on the right bank of the Dnieper River. According to a legend, on this very spot in 882 Prince Oleg killed the princes Askold and Dir and, by some reports, usurped the throne of Kievan Rus, the polity of the region ...

This lithograph of the Fairmount Waterworks, on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, shows one of America’s earliest municipal water-treatment systems. Powered consecutively by steam engines, waterwheels, and pumps that lifted water to reservoirs on a hill (Faire Mount), the waterworks and its beautiful setting were a tourist attraction from the beginning. The plant was designed by Frederick Graff, and the result was an innovative engineering success and beautiful buildings reflecting the contemporary fashion for Greek Revival architecture. This print is by John Caspar Wild (circa 1804-46) a Swiss-born artist ...

This landscape view looking west from Reservoir Hill in Philadelphia shows the Fairmount Water Works, originally constructed between 1812 and 1822 after the designs of Philadelphia chief engineer Frederick Graff. Built to supply the expanding city with safe drinking water, the works included an engine house, mill house, and a millrace bridge. Visitors are seen strolling on the landscaped grounds of the works and rowers are visible on the nearby Schuylkill River. Also depicted are residences, probably including Lemon Hill, the Schuylkill Canal lock, and the river dam. The illustration ...

The city of Petrópolis was founded by government decree on March 16, 1843, and named after Emperor Pedro II (1825–91, reigned 1831–89). The decree provided for the construction of the Imperial Palace and its dependencies and gardens, which formed the Quinta Imperial de Petrópolis (Imperial farm of Petrópolis). Called the Imperial City for its associations with the royal family, Petrópolis served as the summer residence of the Brazilian emperors and was the capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro from 1894 to 1902. This album, dating from ...